CHINA
H7N9 case confirmed
The nation confirmed a new human infection of the deadly H7N9 avian influenza virus, Xinhua news agency said, the first case this winter in the southern province of Guangdong. A 31-year-old woman surnamed Deng from the provincial city of Dongguan was confirmed on Friday to have been infected with the virus, Guangdong’s Health and Family Commission said in a statement on its Web site. The patient, in critical condition, is being treated in the provincial capital of Guangzhou, it added.
CHINA
Beijing bans indoor smoking
Beijing has adopted a smoking ban in all indoor public spaces including workplaces and public transport. The Xinhua news agency reported that the ban will go into effect in the capital on June 1 and carry a fine of up to 200 yuan (US$32.50). The Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People’s Congress passed the draft regulation on Friday. China is home to the most smokers of any country, with 300 million smoking and 740 million exposed to second-hand smoke every year. Xinhua reported the number of smokers in Beijing alone exceeds 400,000 people. The new regulations also ban outdoor tobacco advertisements and as well on TV and in films and newspapers.
ITALY
Hashish sinks after raid
More than 13 tonnes of hashish sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean after smugglers carrying the stash were intercepted by boats working for Triton, the EU’s coastal patrol operation said on Friday. Triton, charged with looking out for people traffickers and their human cargoes, spotted the suspicious 25m fishing boat on Thursday. Officers from the Financial Police and the Spanish Civil Guard tailed it and boarded it about 100 nautical miles (185km) to the south of Sardinia, arresting nine Egyptians. The officers were able to count 370 packets of hashish containing just under 15 tonnes of the powerful form of cannabis before they realized that the boat was holed in its engine room and about to sink. A combination of its abrupt halt and its heavy load ensured it started taking on water rapidly and it soon went under in waters 2,600m deep. “There was only time to recover about 1,600kg of the hashish,” the officer in charge of the operation, Colonel Antonino Iraso, told reporters.
COLOMBIA
Escobar’s hippos fixed
Two hippos that escaped from notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s former estate have been sterilized to prevent them from overwhelming the countryside with their offspring, authorities said on Friday. Fourteen veterinary professionals took part in the operations on the two hippos, who were nicknamed Joaco and Matildo by the landowner whose property they descended on after escaping the late drug lord’s former ranch. Escobar originally bought just two hippos, a male and a female, but today there are at least 36 — 31 at Hacienda Napoles, the two that were sterilized and three others that have escaped to parts unknown. Regional environmental authority Cornare head Carlos Zuluaga said the sterilization was necessary to protect the surrounding community and avoid “the costs that [hippos] represent.” Joaco and Matildo are reportedly recovering well from surgery. It has not been decided whether they will be returned to Hacienda Napoles or given to a zoo outside Colombia.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of